Steamboat Springs Day 4 - Spring Creek

Saturday morning it didn't look good for riding. It rained hard during the night, the ground was wet and the sky threatened more rain. (We thought of all the people we know doing Leadville this morning and hoping the weather was OK.) We looked at some trails in Vernal as a plan B, but the weather forecast didn't look good there either.

We packed up, checked out and went out for breakfast. The sky was clearing so we stopped by Orange Peel Bicycle to ask if any of the trails would be rideable.

I must show a picture of the Orange Peel Bicycle building:


The guy at the shop told me it was an old scrap wood incinerator used by a local saw mill. Kent Eriksen, founder of Moots, moved it to the present location and sprayed the exterior with cement. This was the original Moots shop (Moots is still in Steamboat Springs). Kent now builds custom frames in a shop attached to the left.

It instantly reminded me of a Dalek from Doctor Who (anyone else remember the Dalek game?).


Pardon the geek-out, back to the ride...

We wanted to ride Spring Creek and were happy to hear the shop guy assure us it would be fine. So we drove the few blocks to the trail head.

It didn't start off promising as a dirt road that turned into a double track. The scenery was nice with a stream and lots of trees, but it's single-track we crave. Happily it didn't take long before we reached trail. And what a sweet trail it was!

We passed through stands of Aspen and conifers and numerous clearings loaded with a profusion of ferns like I have never seen before - in several places they were shoulder-high.


The trail crosses the stream 13 times over bridges like this:


And there were plenty of wildflowers in bloom.


What am I picking?


Thimbleberries! Yum.


The trail climbs 1272 feet at a comfortable grade (except for one short, steep grunt) over 5.2 miles to arrive at the Dry Lake trail head where we turned around to go back.


The trail is in good shape and the ride down had outstanding flow. Here I am catching a little air off a bridge:


And Jolene off the same bridge.


We slowed down a few times for hikers or other riders, but it was still a very fun downhill romp.

Back at the car we were glad the weather cooperated just enough so we got one last ride in Steamboat Springs.

We drove home for hours through wind and rain and were happy to see our children when we arrived home. We enjoyed Steamboat Springs and would go back again.